 Aloha and welcome to Cooper Union. Today, we'll be focusing on UN World Ocean Day in Hawaii, organizing for our ocean every day. I'm your host, Joshua Cooper, and I'm very fortunate to be joined by people who are working on the ocean and making sure that we have a better world and connecting everything that matters most. We, of course, emerged and come from the oceans, and ocean is really the source of our life. We must understand the importance of our ocean in our daily lives and explore what we can all do to protect our Pacific and oceans, all the oceans on the planet. And of course, we depend on our ocean and we must all do more to be more active for our common future. And what's exciting today is we'll be joined by Leon and Andy to be able to share what they do on a daily basis so that the world is more aware and we can look at what needs to be done. In 2009, the UN hosted its first World Oceans Day to celebrate oceans while also raising awareness of the threats facing us and the marine ecosystems. So, we're very happy and I'd like to open up and Leon, thank you so much for joining us today. Thanks so much, Joshua, for the opportunity. We're really, really excited to be here and talk a little bit about some of things that we have going on for World Ocean Day and some other opportunities where other educators can engage with NOAA and about climate in general as well too. Thank you. Andy, could you share a bit about your important work and marine protected areas and the importance of what you focus on with education? Yeah, sure. My name is Andy Collins and I am the education coordinator for Papahanao Mokuakea Marine National Monument and UNESCO World Heritage Site. So, we have multiple designations for our project. This is the Northwestern Hawaiian Islands. It's the three-quarters of the Hawaiian Archipelago. So, beyond Kauai and Niti House, there's a whole string of islands and atolls and coral reefs. Some of the healthiest coral reefs in the United States are in that area. And the work that I do is primarily education. And I try to bring that remote place to the people through education programs, curriculum, our beautiful Mokuopapa Discovery Center in Hilo. We have 70,000 visitors in the year passed through and a whole bunch of other education and initiatives connecting with our research, cultural initiatives and all these things. Very, very busy trying to bring this remote place to the world. Yes, I mean, our big blue is really an endless source of inspiration. But our waters need our commitment, love, and protection. And Andy, it's great that you mentioned that. I was just on Kauai over the weekend, and it was so beautiful to see Niihau, but then also the other islands that are right around there as well. So, it really is then the beginning to that important space that UNESCO has recognized. And maybe could you share some of the importance about the ocean? I know really the ocean does provide oxygen for every other breath we enjoy. It's the source of 20% of the animal protein that most of us are fortunate enough to be able to eat. It absorbs half of the carbon emissions produced in the last century, and it's home to 80% of life on earth. It's just so amazing. Maybe you could share a little bit more. Yeah, I mean, you covered some of the top hit points for the oceans. It does absorb a lot of the excess carbon dioxide that we've been producing, which is part of the reason why we haven't seen such amazing fluctuations in temperature because the oceans are absorbing a lot of that. So, it acts as a buffer. It also acts as a buffer for storms. Here in Hawaii, we see that a lot with the huge wave events and without coral reefs protecting our shores and many houses. More houses would have been washed away. And during hurricane events, they protect our shores as well. It just covers 72% of the earth's surface. And we've only explored, I don't know, about 5% of the oceans. And it's really fascinating. There's a website that launched today, the deepoceaneducation.org. And it has a lot of the cool resources for three of these big deep sea expedition ships that are funded by NOAA and private partners, Chinat Ocean Institute and Office of Exploration Trust and Okeanos Explorer, our NOAA vessel. And so all the amazing deep sea research that they're going to be doing is going to be highlighted on that site. So you can see some of the new territories that we're getting into in the ocean that we had no idea of these different life forms to live down there. It's still very unexplored space. Thank you so much. And Nia, would you like to add a little bit as well with the exciting work that you're doing? Yeah, I mean, just maybe hanging on to what Adi was saying about the unexplored nature of the ocean. I think a big fact that we often hear about is that we know more about the surface of the planet Mars than we know about the actual depths of our ocean. So there really is a lot of neat exploration to go on. And I guess in general, taking a step back, I'm the Education and Outreach Specialist at the NOAA Regional Center. I'm here on Fort Island in Honolulu. And I work with all the different line offices. So NOAA really is an organization that studies everything from the surface of the sun to the very, very depths of the ocean. And maybe we can cue a quick maybe one minute video, kind of giving you an intro of the type of stuff that we do here in the Pacific region. But we have a little video that can give you an idea of the type of the work that NOAA does. So as you can see there, right, again, traveling from the surface of the sun with satellites, we have a satellites group, a group that studies hurricanes as well. And we'll see the kind of the variety of topics that NOAA covers. So we can just kind of sit back and enjoy some of this imagery on here. And you can see fisheries is a big part of what we do. So everything from you saw satellites, you saw weather, fisheries. And a big part of NOAA's mission there, you're looking at people flying through the hurricane hunters, some tsunami footage. So the Pacific Tsunami Warning Center is located here on site. And there are 24-7 operations. Some of our NOAA ships that go out and remove a lot of the marine debris. And you can see they're studying whales. So a huge variety of different topics, everything from, again, we talked about surface of the sun to the very depths of the ocean. And coral reefs is a big part of it as well. So that just gives you a little teaser of the types of things that we study here throughout the Pacific Islands region. And really what's incredible, yeah, go ahead. Well, go ahead. No, I was just going to kind of harp on to what Andy was brought up earlier about really the remote nature of the Pacific Islands because we're so remote, right? Just smack in the middle. Pacific Ocean contains something like 25,000 islands. So, you know, people think of us as this vast expanse of ocean, but we're sort of dotted with all these other islands that are interspersed with in there. Yeah. And in many ways, I love the way that the Pacific leaders have reframed it. Calling themselves instead of small island, developing states, large ocean nations. Because we see the ocean, I think a great way to connect with one another and is uniting force. That really does, of course, unite the entire world in many ways. Yet there are many challenges that I thought Leon and Andy both hinted at, you know, 8 million tons of plastic entering the water every year. And could you maybe share what might be we might be able to do? I think the U.S. instead of goal of conserving 30% of our lens in waters by 2030 under the marine protected, it is looking also at the UN 2030 agenda, sustainable development goals. Could you maybe share some of the activities of what you're doing to then be able to achieve such an ambitious agenda? Yeah. Sure. I can start. Well, today is World Ocean Day. And I think that's such an important thing. And people don't, one thing I like to emphasize about that is why is it called World Ocean Day? We have the oceans, right? But the thing is the oceans are all connected. So really, there is one global ocean. And we've divided it up into jurisdictions and geographies. But there really is one ocean that's all connected. And so when you're thinking about issues like climate change or marine debris, you really begin to see how these things are connected. Because even marine debris generated in the Pacific goes into other oceans. We find it in the Arctic. We find it generally doesn't cross the equator. So what's generated in the northern hemisphere does not transfer to southern hemisphere. But marine debris is a giant issue. And every year to date in the northwestern Hawaiian islands through a multi-agency collaborative initiative led by NOAA and also our Coast Guard, we've collected over a thousand tons of marine debris from these remote islands where nobody lives. You go out to these islands, it's just pristine. It's beautiful. There's monk seals on the beach. The land is covered by seabirds so much that if you take a step, you put a hole through some seabird's burrow. And you can't even walk on the land. It's Swiss cheese because of all the seabirds. And the shorelines are covered in plastics, TV tubes, little toys, you know, sometimes pick up little plastic army men, toothbrushes, a lot of lighters. So, you know, we have to be very careful because all the stuff that we don't properly dispose of ends up in the ocean eventually. So certainly things like recycling are important. But even more important than that are the choices you make in what you purchase and trying to limit the amount of packaging and single use materials. Now plastic, look, it hasn't had an incredible benefit to our modern society. It fuels our health industry with all the heat materials to keep us alive and syringes and all this stuff. It's absolutely critical. But single use plastics, where you get a drink at 7-11, you go in, you get a bottle of water, you walk outside, you use that product for 30 seconds, you throw it in the trash, even if you recycle it. That material is going to be around for thousands of years. You've used it for 30 seconds, you know, maybe 500 years if you're lucky to break down and it's going to wind up in the ocean. So certainly the choices that you make are critically important and recycling and reducing, you know, the amount of materials you put into the dump. So those kinds of things are really important. And participating in beach cleanups and things like that is a great way to connect with your community and do some good. But really trying to think of how you relate to the materials that you use is the most important thing, I think. And that's absolutely essential that we have to change our mindset so that we, that then fuels a movement to protect our ocean and every day decisions that we're making and being more aware of that impact on the ocean. Really, our CHI is essential for our collective future. Also crucial for global food security. And we can't have a healthy planet without a healthy ocean. Leon, is there other aspects you'd like to add regarding them? Yeah, I mean, when Andy talked about, you know, the importance of, you know, doing our fair share in terms of making sure that, you know, we keep our, we keep our beaches free of debris. There are ways that people can evolve from a citizen science perspective. So if you think about your family, when you're going out and collecting trash, there's something called the marine debris tracker app. As an example, where you can go out, log the types of trash that you're picking up, record it on your cell phone as you're doing it. And then later on, you can actually download that information and share it as a class. So it can turn into an educational opportunity where you're not only cleaning up the beach, but have, you know, this sort of something further on that you can investigate in your classroom of the types of debris that you picked up. So that's a great way of doing your fair share and then also learning something at the same point too. That's excellent because really, we can't have this unacceptable future where our oceans continue to be polluted, where there's really overfishing and in some ways just entirely depleted. And we have to look at how we can change that cycle decline of ocean well-being and make sure that that's really a priority for all of us as we live. Because as Andy said, I think everything goes to the ocean yet no one understands it that way. So we have to begin to have that full cycle of life and understand it. Also, the health of the ocean is our health in putting all those points together. Andy, I think we have a concert that's coming up as well. And there's a couple of exciting things to raise awareness in a popular way. And we saw Josh Totope and Ron Ortiz. That's one thing coming up that'll still be a virtual event. Dion also talked about some exciting things with beach cleanups and so did you. Maybe you could share some of the activities coming up on how people can get involved. Yeah. Well, I know that today, for example, there is the beach cleanup that I think probably already happened at the Kahala Resort on Oahu through our partner, the Papahanao Mokuakea Marine Debris Project. But they have some education boosts that are still going on down there on Oahu today. But our events are coming up this weekend, starting this weekend on the 13th. We're going to be broadcasting live over Facebook live over OEV TV. You can see the link on that flyer that's being shown. And we have some amazing talent. We also have some musical talent, Josh Tofi, Kappena, Ron Ortiz, Drew Henry. And so what this is really trying to do is just to celebrate our oceans and to celebrate the work that we're doing. We have some really cool video postcards from youth across the Pacific saying why they love the ocean and why it's important to them. And also celebrating the 15-year anniversary of Papahanao Mokuakea Marine National Monument. That's going to be the following Tuesday with another event I'll tell you about in a second. But the World Ocean Day event is going to be really, really interesting. We have the theme is generations, passing our knowledge on to the next generation, sharing information. And so within that theme, we're also talking about research, how it was back in the day. You can show the video of the Monk Steel critter cam. But 30 years ago, research in the marine realm was so much different. It's so much more primitive than it is today. Today, we use robots and we use cameras. We attach to the back of seals. Like you see here, this is critter cam, a project with National Geographic where we actually attach a camera through a silicone non-toxic material to the back of the seal and watch and observe where they're foraging. We learn a lot about seal behavior and how best to manage these species through these kinds of innovative things. So we're going to be talking about that on the World Ocean Day event. And we're also going to have Kimmy Werner and her brother, Randy Kosaki, on talking about Taope, which is one of our non-native species and how we can maybe eat those fish into a local extinction. So we have a lot of neat events around that. Leon, anything you'd like to add? Yeah, maybe it's just a incentive for folks to join us. We're having a game. Those of you who are kids who are probably familiar with the game Kahoot that you might use in your classroom. So we'll have a Kahoot game going on where we'll have questions interspersed throughout the entire two hours. And those of you who enter a Kahoot game kind of stay for the entire thing, even opportunity to win. I think one of the grand prizes is a one night stay at Owlani and a whole bunch of other prizes that are available. So please do join us and stick around for the entire two hours as you get a chance to learn and the chance to maybe win something as well too. Excellent. And so the UN also just launched a UN decade of ocean science. So it's great to see then how this will all interact. And one of the other points, of course, that I think is crucial about the ocean that we've talked about plastics. We've talked a little bit about depleting of the fish stocks. But one of the most important is also the coral reefs. I know that if we do go above the 1.5, we could actually lose a majority of our tropical coral reefs. Could you maybe talk a little bit about what we can do to protect those really amazing coral pull-ups all the way to the entire reef that we are so fortunate to be able to have where we live? Andy, would you like to start? Yeah, sure. Well, what you're talking about is the change in temperature of 1.5 degrees Celsius, which will cause warming of the ocean. And we're already seeing this through mass bleaching events, essentially corals, when they're stressed out by thermal changes like that. They eject their symbiotic zoes and belly, they give them energy, and they turn just ghostly white. And if that goes on for several weeks at that higher temperature, they will die. And we've seen mass deaths die off in places, in Papahana, Mokulake, even in Hawaii. Two years ago, we had a big bleaching event across a lot of the main Hawaiian islands. And so this is happening all over the world in the Great Barrier Reef. We've seen a lot of that in the news. And the challenge there is to try to reduce our carbon footprint as a species across the planet. And that involves changing our whole energy infrastructure. That involves personal choices. But on a personal level, you can do something solar for your home or reducing the amount of fuel you use for your car and things like that. But more importantly, is to support these larger initiatives to transition to alternative energy fuels. Really, that's where the big change is. The big change is going to happen in the transportation sector and in energy production. And ultimately, we'd like to try to cap off the amount of increase in temperature so we can keep coral reefs, because it's just spectacular things. But right now, the doom and gloom is like, by the end of the century, we're not going to have any coral reefs. And that's tremendously sad to myself. I'm sure to many people, because they support a lot of life around the planet and are critical. So we need to do what it can with support those initiatives that will get us to that target and have a cleaner, better world, I think. Absolutely. And that really brings to our point, Leon. Also, you have another hat where you work with the Climate Reality Project. Can you share a bit about the Climate Reality Project and why you got involved and what it does to help promote and protect our oceans? Sure, absolutely. So the Climate Reality Project, it's a group that's actually international in scale that really looks at spreading the word about what you can do in terms of climate. There's a whole bunch of different sectors within climate reality. We have a Oahu chapter here, as well as some chapters on Neighbor Islands. But really, the focus of it is to do number one presentations, whether it be to schools, to different organizations who want to get more information on climate. So we can definitely flash up some of that information on what climate reality is doing. And in terms of climate change in general, putting on kind of the NOAA hat, we do have an upcoming climate change teacher workshop. We have a little flyer that maybe we can put up. It's happening in July, in mid-July. And the neat thing about this workshop is it's regional in scale. So we have teachers that were inviting for grades 5th through 12th grade from Hawaii, American Samoa, Guam, and the Commonwealth from Northern Mariana, Silence. So it's an opportunity to number one, really build relationships with other like-minded educators through these kind of collaborative conversations that we're having. We'll have a keynote. You can see there, Nicole Yamase, those of you not familiar with her story. She's the youngest woman and I think the first or second Pacific Islander to grow down the Challenger Deep, which is the deepest part of the Pacific Ocean, seven miles down in a tiny little submersible. So she'll be there to talk about her experiences and her passion with climate change as well. And during the workshop, we'll have an opportunity to really explore hands-on demonstrations. And you talked a little bit earlier about coral reefs. So we have about two modules, one actually coral reefs, another one on sea level rise would be two big focus areas that we'll discuss. The teachers will walk away with an opportunity to bring some of this curriculum back in your classroom and take it from a national scale to even localizing it to what's happening in your backyard. And then one big thing part of the workshop is really to have the cultural element too. So we'll have some opening and closing cultural Oli and Mele that we'll have from each of the different regions. So it's an opportunity to have some cross-cultural collaborations. So really a neat opportunity over those three days. Please do come and join us. And if you have any questions, a good thing to reach science, easy one to remember, science.is.cool at NOAA.gov is where you can ask any questions about that workshop that's coming up. So we would love to see any educators either formal or informal throughout the Pacific Island regions come to that workshop. That is excellent. And it really brings in that next aspect where Hawaii of course became the first state to adopt the climate emergency legislation, just this past legislative cycle. So that's quite powerful. But then also we can see on the national level, Senator Schatz with the legislation looking at Oceania and also representative Ed Case also looking at Blue Pacific. It shows Hawaii once again reaching out more to Oceania as a partner. And that even though we are in the middle, we're actually so connected with our neighbors and the Pacific Island nations north, south, east, and west that we can work together. And really I appreciate the work of NOAA for one, moving on our understanding, but then also helping us guide ourselves as well as other governments on undertaking actions of what we can all do and how we can coordinate. I know we have a couple of minutes left. Maybe we can talk a little bit about the blueprint for the future of humanity with the Paris Agreement and the 2030 agenda. If there's other points you'd like to share about our ocean that we all appreciate so much. Andy? Yeah, sure. I mean, you mentioned earlier the 30 by 30 initiative. This is a great global initiative to try to protect 30% of our oceans, 30% of our land areas. And we've seen some nice announcements today. Panama just announced expanding a huge marine protected area in the Koebos Ridge. We're going to see some other announcements for other protections. So people are getting on board. And one of the things that we're celebrating in the 15 year anniversary of Papahanaumokuake is that we were kind of catalyst for a lot of these large scale marine protected areas. Prior to 2000, the only real one was the Great Barrier Reef. And after that Papahanaumokuake, the Northwestern Hawaiian Islands Core Reef Ecosystem Reserve came online, which became Papahanaumokuakea. And now we're seeing dozens of large scale initiatives around the planet. So people are getting on and seeing why the oceans are important and what we need to do to protect them. Now the thing is, is that even if we protect huge areas like we protect Papahanaumokuakea, and we're also in the process that designated now as a more formal national marine sanctuary, so it has more protection through Congress. But some of the biggest impacts we have are outside our borders, the climate change, the marine debris, alien species. So even though we protect these vast areas and people don't even live there, we're still seeing a lot of these impacts. So it's a challenge. You can totally protect areas and that helps a lot to make them more resilient to these impacts because there aren't other things like pollution, shoreline pollution, chemical pollution, people overusing them. These environments are more resilient to these other impacts, but it still is a challenge because we have these global impacts. So we have to do, we have to work on both fronts. We have to protect them. And physically, we also have to protect them as a global species and what we could do to reduce these global impacts. That's a great point. We have to use direct action, but also diplomacy to make sure that we protect what we can where we live, but then point out that we need to be a leader by example to bring many more communities in as well. Any closing words? Yeah, I would just, the whole thing of like, we're all in this together, right? It's not someone's individual, it is someone's individual action. It's collective action and maybe just harping back to that climate emergency workshop that we did actually name after the bill that recently passed. It's also an opportunity we're going to invite outside organizations to come to it. So you can see what's being done in terms of climate in your backyard and can see the steps that you can take. For example, during some coral reef stuff, more of Malama, Manalua or doing stuff with blue planet or climate reality. There are a bunch of organizations that will invite to this workshop so that teachers can connect with them as well and see what their students can really make it a team effort. Perfect. And really we do know our earth is everything, but too often everything is seen just through an economic lens and too often unfortunately culture isn't communicated as well and has been ignored of course throughout time. So it's great to see that you're bringing culture, science and pulling all of the elements together to make sure that we can promote and protect our planet. I'd like to thank both you for joining us and also welcome everyone for World Oceans Day 2021. And we hope everyone listening can be involved to organize for our ocean every day. Thank you so much Mahalo.